Tag / fast-food

On our first night to London, after checking into Dorsett at Sheperd’s Bush, we walked to the nearby Westfield London in search for dinner, and was greeted by Five Guys Burgers & Fries right at the entrance that we took.

I’ve heard about this burger chain on some forums before, so naturally we thought we’d gave it a try, after all, it is one of the most crowded restaurants in the mall (which turned out to be the largest mall in London).

£22.5 for 2 burgers, a milkshake, a soft drink, and 1 serving of fries

Five Guys currently operates only in North America and in UK (since 2013), and is focus on burger, fries, milkshakes, and everything with bacon.

Ordering is a pretty straight forward affair – line up, order, pay, pick up your food, and get your drinks. Not very different from most fast food restaurants. They also have an open kitchen and prepare everything right in front of your eyes, it was super hectic, and I think most of us won’t last half an hour in there.

ermm.. cheeseburger, and bacon infused milk shake

The menu is actually pretty simple. There’s burger, cheeseburger, bacon burger, bacon cheeseburger, and the “little” size of those variations. You then choose from over a dozen toppings & sauces to add to your burger

Additionally, there’s also sandwiches and hotdogs, but we’re not interested in those anyway.

We ended up ordering a little cheeseburger, a little bacon burger, a milk shake with bacon bits, a medium fries, and a soft drinks. All of which adds up to £22.50, London is certainly not a cheap place for food, even if it was fast food.

Haze & KY at Five Guys, Westfield London

The burger was certainly juicy & wholesome, even though we opted for the “little” version, they still fill up the stomach pretty easily. The milk shake with bacon bits though, was excellent, and I wished it came with those “bubble tea” type of straws instead, sucking the bits via those tiny straw was a bit of a struggle.

It was overall a pretty satisfying meal. I think Five Guys sits somewhere in between the usual fast food chains and gourmet burger outlets, but those milkshakes though, that’s something else. Would not hesitate to try again.

Note: This UK – Malaysia Influencer Exchange programme was organised by Malaysia Airlines.However, opinions are of my own. Malaysia Airlines flies between London and Kuala Lumpurtwice a day on the A380. There are 8 seats in the First Class, 66 in Business Class and 420in Economy. Make your flight reservations today on www.malaysiaairlines.com.

My colleague Sheng and I were at Pertama Complex yesterday to check out some riding gears, so we thought KFC would be the best option for lunch there. I was telling him about Zinger Double Down that I was fond with (low carb diet?) and prepared to order that for my meal.

That’s where I found out that it’s already off the menu, to be replaced by probably the first non-fried chicken dish from KFC – the paper wrapped chicken that they called Golden Wrapped Chicken.

probably the first non-batter fried KFC chicken dish?

There are two sets to choose from, one with a side of bun and mash, the other with butter rice. I picked the latter, who eats ‘ji bao kai’ (纸包鸡) with mash potato anyway?

The set goes for RM 12.50 including tax, and gets you a quarter chicken, the above mentioned sides, and a large soft drink. I asked for drumstick piece (aka dark meat).

tasted better than I expected, I liked it

To be honest, I liked it! The chicken was well marinated and carries a strong hint of black pepper and a trace of mushroom flavor, the bed of corn gives it a note of subtle sweetness as well. The butter rice was very similar to chicken rice, but softer in texture.

I don’t know how long this dish is going to be at KFC but I hope they are going to keep it for the long haul, it provides alternative to their usual batter fried chicken that can be quite ‘heaty’.

Whenever we think about fast food, the image of pan fried burger patties oozing with oil come to mind. While they are often delicious, the more health conscious bunch might not embrace fast food with open arms….. unless it is grilled instead!

Burger King at KLCC

Burger King is one of the very few fast food joints that serves burgers you can eat without feeling too guilty. In fact, it is the only quick service restaurant that serves grilled burgers, and one of my lunch stops every once in a while ever since they opened up the branch at KLCC.

A couple days ago I went over to take advantage of the BK Grilled Chicken promo. The new kid in town is the BK Black Pepper grilled chicken, while the BBQ Beefacon & Mushroom grilled chicken are included in the promo too – when you go large, you get a free sundae.

BK BBQ Beefacon & Black Pepper grilled chicken, Sundae!

My colleague Sam, who is originally an Iranian (with no BK there) but has since abandoned his country to become a Norwegian (with only one BK in the town of Stavanger, see the pic, it’s beautiful!) ordered the black pepper grilled chicken set, while I opted for the BBQ Beefacon version.

there’s no food makeup in these photos, this is what you get! yums

The burgers, while not exactly as beautiful as the posters, turned out to be pretty yummy. The crunchy beef bacon on mine goes well with the juicy grilled chicken patty, and Sam loves his black pepper grilled chicken burger too.

We made quick work of the burgers, fries, and then of course, the free sundae.

Sam & KY at Burger King

P/S: actually Sam didn’t want to go to a fast food restaurant (watching his weight apparently) until I told him that it is BK and we’re going to have the grilled chicken burger, then he went “oh, okay!”

It is often my mission to taste food that are not available locally whenever I travel to another country, and that usually means eating by the streets and at some of the more dodgy areas the locals frequent.

However, unique perhaps only to Malaysia in this part of the world, there are several big restaurant chains that altered their menu to be Muslim friendly (Tony Romas, Subway), or skip the country entirely. One of such example would be Mos Burger.

Mos Burger – Japanese Fine Burger & Coffee

Mos Burger is the 2nd largest fast food restaurant chain in Japan after the ubiquitous McDonald’s. In addition to the native country, they also operate in Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The major difference between Mos Burger and the usual McD/BK/Wendy’s is the availability of their rather unique rice burger, and of course, the liberal addition of pork in their menu. (which was exactly why I went there in both my Bangkok trips)

On our 3rd day at Bangkok, we found ourself at the biggest Mall in town, CentralWorld , Mell and I decided to have a go at Mos Burger for lunch.

The menu at Mos is rather big for a fast-food restaurant. There are hotdog, prawn, fish, chicken teriyaki, beef patties, beef teriyaki, unagi, and of course, pork burger (not available in Mos Singapore, sigh)

Naturally, we went for two different pork burgers. I chose the ginger pork rice burger, while Mell ordered the pork cutlet burger set. We paid and then sat down patiently and waited for the burgers to be served.

ginger pork rice burger & pork cutlet burger

The rice burger “buns” and the ginger pork was rather awesome. The feeling was rather like having a ginger pork bento with Japanese rice, but in a convenient burger format. I can eat this kinda things 3 times a week. Mell’s pork cutlet burger was equally impressive as well. Soft buns, generous amount of shredded cabbage, and the delicious pork cutlet with the savory sauce. The lady was well satisfied.

Our sets came with soft drink and a small serving of fries. The fries are slightly thicker than your standard McDonald’s, and less salty too. They’re probably healthier, but I wasn’t too impressed with them. Then again I was never a fan of fries since I the stint with McD over 10 years ago.

some other burgers and dishes from my previous trip

The set meals we ordered were 109 and 129 bath, or roughtly RM 11 and RM 13. A little bit more than BK and McD’s but the quality of burgers more than made up for the prize difference.

If you find yourself at the center of Bangkok, head to CenterWorld and give this a try. There is also a branch at Siam Paragon’s food court level.

When I was very young, my family was not exactly one of those that can afford eating out on a regular basis. However, my late dad would still bring us out for picnics and a dinner on most Sundays as a treat to us. We usually go to tai chau places, or Gurney drive, or bak kut teh; but on rarer occasions, we would go to KFC.

I always enjoyed the trips to KFC the most. I really do, and even until today, I would head to KFC for lunch at least a couple times in a month despite having access to much wider variety of both local and foreign cuisines. KFC is simply one of my favorites.

KFC Zinger Tower!

Though I usually order original recipe chicken with drum stick and thigh, I do experiment with different offerings from KFC. Cheesy wedges, X meal, colonel burger, chicken rice, I think I have tried everything in the menu with chicken in it.

I vaguely remember that the Zinger Tower was introduced a few years ago and then disappeared from the menu for some reasons, and this is the it’s 2nd coming. The burger is pretty big and comes in this order:

Soft bun

Zesty chili lime sauce

Fresh lettuce

Zinger fillet

Cheese

Hash brown

Soft bun

What intrigued me most in the list is definitely the hash brown. I’ve actually seen people stuffing fries in their burger and always wonder how it tastes like, and this is just the perfect chance to give it a go.

The Zinger Tower, poster girl not included

So Cheesie and I headed to KFC at Atria over the weekend to find out that the mall being painted white and red, exactly the color of KFC, conincident? I don’t know.

We ordered a Zinger Tower set that comes with a Zinger Tower, a mango pudding, a regular soft drink, and curiously enough, a Zinger Time watch. The watches come in 4 designs, yellow and green; yellow and red, blue and orange, and pink. No prize guessing which one the girl picked.

Comes with a Zinger Time watch too!

After a bite into the burger, I now really understand why some of those mat sallehs put fries the burger. The combination of hash brown and the juicy KFC chicken fillet works really well, the melted cheese and the chili lime sauce added extra flavors to the burger too. It was surprisingly good, better than I had expected before I give it a try.

I’m not writing how good this burger is because this is supposed to be an advertorial, but because it was really that tasty. I liked it, and Cheesie too.

The Zinger Tower set goes for RM 15.90 while the a la carte price for the burger alone is RM 6.60. I think I’m going to have it again sometimes next week.